SOX REGAIN 1ST FROM ANGELS

Mike Kiley, Chicago TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

It may have been the most inspiring inning of baseball the White Sox have played this season. If they win the American League West title, Friday night`s eighth inning will be one of those moments that best summarizes the long, long road to the playoffs.

The Sox recaptured first place in the division by ''playing with September intensity,'' manager Tony LaRussa said after a rousing 4-2 decision over the California Angels, who dropped a half-game behind Chicago.

Let`s go to that eighth inning: The Angels had the bases loaded with nobody out, the Sox ahead 4-2 and Bob James, in relief of starter Tom Seaver, was pitching.

Daryl Sconiers sent a fly to left. Rudy Law caught the ball and threw home. Blocking the plate beautifully with his leg, Carlton Fisk leaned on the Angels` Juan Beniquez at the same time he got the ball and put the tag on him for the out.

''My heart jumped in my throat when I made that play,'' Fisk said. ''It`s not easy for me to do that. Risk giving up my legs for one run that wasn`t even the winning run or tying run.''

Now there were two out and Angels at first and second. Bobby Grich slammed a fastball off James` chest. He may have blinked, but he never moved an inch after absorbing a rip that could have sent some to intensive care. He trotted over to pick up the ball and threw out Grich to end the inning.

''Not many guys could have gone back and got on the mound in the ninth,'' LaRussa said about James, who earned his 15th save.

The action packed into that eighth-inning sequence was matched through the first seven innings by Seaver. He may be 40, but you couldn`t tell it by his fastball.

Seaver (7-4) notched his 295th career victory. He gave up two unearned runs and two hits in the first inning, but after that allowed no hits. He retired 12 straight Angels at one point, and when he showed that he was weary with the leadoff walk to Beniquez in the eighth, James relieved him.

''It was the best I`ve felt throughout a game this year,'' said Seaver.

''Even after they went ahead 2-0 in the first, I felt I had the stuff to keep us in the game. That was the best stuff I`ve had since . . .''

''1976,'' Fisk interrupted jokingly.

James had a bandage wrapped around his chest afterward with a glove stuck in the middle. ''I should have had it there from the start,'' he said, remembering Grich`s shot.

''Once I saw I wasn`t going to have a heart attack, I picked up the ball and threw him out. This team picked me up tonight instead of me picking them up.''

Law had thrown out one other runner trying to go from third to home this year. He said that he has more confidence in his arm now that he plays left and not center.

''I don`t have a center-fielder`s arm,'' he said. ''Moving to left, I can throw some out going to the plate.''

Earlier, Seaver had dedicated one pitch to Fisk. But instead of throwing it to him, he threw it for him.

Fisk was whacked with a Ron Romanick pitch on the back of his shoulder in the second inning. It was the fourth time in 11 games on this trip that Fisk had been hit by a pitch, and the eighth time a Sox batter had been plunked.

So Seaver told the Angels they should refrain from hitting his catcher. He handed that message to catcher Bob Boone when he led off the bottom of the second. Seaver hit him in the back with his second pitch.

And shortly after Seaver got tough, so did the Sox offense. They scored three runs in the third inning to take a 3-2 lead against Romanick, whose record dropped to 7-3.

As they have repeatedly done on the trip, the Sox came alive after two were out in the third. Harold Baines singled and Greg Walker homered to tie the score 2-2.

Fisk and Oscar Gamble followed with line singles and Daryl Boston scored Fisk with the go-ahead run by bouncing a single over the head of first baseman Rod Carew.

Reggie Jackson, playing again in right field this year, showed why he shouldn`t be when Ozzie Guillen lifted a routine fly his way in the sixth. Jackson got a late break on the ball and then never laid a glove on it as it bounced under and past him for a double.

Julio Cruz went to third on Guillen`s lucky hit. Law drove in Cruz with a single to left, but Guillen was called out at home on Ruppert Jones` throw to Boone.

The Sox`s infield defense was responsible for the Angels` taking a 2-0 lead in the first. With two out and nobody on, Greg Walker had a line drive go off his glove on a tough play, but one he should have made. The Angels loaded the bases later when second baseman Cruz bobbled Jackson`s one-hopper for an error.

That gave Doug DeCinces the chance to drive home two runs with his single.

''But this club wouldn`t die,'' Seaver said.

And if the Sox can continue to play like this, their hopes for another championship season are very much alive.